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So about 10 days ago on the way home from a northern road trip we made a stop in Louisville to visit Norm Epley. I hadn't seen norm in 10 years since I bought my 601 from him

He has a sweet little 621 CC that I was checking out for Jim, but while we were there he made me a sweet offer on so we York parts he had.

An Eb monster body
An Eb monster body without the bell
Two 3v upright valve sections
Two dogleg pipes meant for front action tubas

I've wanted a larger Eb for a while now, as even though my Conn/York build looked nice, it never played as good as it looked

The thought is to take the york valve section from my Conn/York Frankentuba, and transplant it to the york body. I wasn't going to do a lot of polishing until I was sure the intonation of the new horn wouldn't torpedo the entire project

A few days ago I took apart the Frankentuba and mocked up the big York with minimal bracing and leadpipe facing the wrong direction just to get an idea of the scale. Not Bad! The Bb in the staff and the Eb above is flat, but the rest of the partials are pretty good considering the Bad reputation of the york. (because I took out the loop after the valve section, my tuning slide was too short, so really the whole horn is a 1/4 step sharp) The idea is to construct the MTS so I have room to adjust in or out to compensate for the bad notes. Not sure if I'll use a Tuning Rod or a trigger, it depends how off it is when I get it all Together, and then I'll decide


I was encouraged enough to go full steam ahead with the project. I'm ordering some main tuning slide material from badger through Kevin Stiles, and I need to figure out what to do about a leadpipe. I could get a universal filled with pitch from Badger, or I have someone alter my existing pipe, or I am also going to check if a king 2341 pipe might work. It's already set up for this bell size, but the question is what the bore size of that pipe is at the length I need it.

Not getting in a rush for this one, taking my time and making sure that I don't put together something that looks like a plumbing experiment (parts of my Frankentuba were that way, especially the 4th valve. I have enough parts and options to do it the right way this time

And yes I know, I have a LOT of polishing to do

Productive day today. I mocked up the horn with a longer tuning slide I cobbled together from spare parts while I wait on the parts to come in from badger, and found out that I can get the horn down to A 440 without doing anything loopy to the main tuning slide. I'll also be able to bring it in to adjust for the flat notes on the horn. Haven't found too much sharp yet, thankfully



I'll post more pics after I polish some more





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From what I heard in the test play, I think you have a winner!

Anxious to hear it again when the project is done.

Thanks!
Spent the morning redoing everything I did the last couple days. I realized last night that the inner branch needs to go BEHIND the outer branch. I can't remember why I did it the other way, I had my reasons at the time, but I was wrong. Having the inner branch so high made the valve section ridiculously tall. It's still tall, but much better now.


If anyone's wondering why the valve section is so close to the top of the horn, it's because of the length of my arms and I wanted to create a longer main tuning slide to help me adjust

Now THAT'S a thumb ring!

I have a big thumb! (also, years of playing cerveny has made me appreciate a big of chunky thumb ring)

Norm is awesome. So glad you got to stop by. His fifth-valve added Piggy was one of the first five valve tubas I had ever seen. I think I was a freshman in high school when I began playing in a community band with him.

One of the things I miss about living in Louisville is the proximity to both Norm and Martin Wilk. Great city, hope you got to eat some good local food.

And cool project! Keep us posted. I have a York Monster I am tempted to fiddle around with in that manner.

Nice! I wrapped the bows behind on my Eb build as well. It helped! Yours is looking good!

LeMark wrote: ↑Mon Jul 17, 2023 3:07 pm I have a big thumb! (also, years of playing cerveny has made me appreciate a big of chunky thumb ring)

All tubas should have the big fat thumb rings...worst invention of all time...adjustable thumb rings...

bisontuba wrote: ↑Mon Jul 17, 2023 6:05 pm

LeMark wrote: ↑Mon Jul 17, 2023 3:07 pm I have a big thumb! (also, years of playing cerveny has made me appreciate a big of chunky thumb ring)

All tubas should have the big fat thumb rings...worst invention of all time...adjustable thumb rings...

Where did you get said chunky ring, @LeMark?

I honestly can't remember. Someone sent it to me when I was making my last Frankentuba

Maybe Tabor, but I honestly can't remember

Monster Eb update! The valve section is installed, including the circuit for the 5th valve. Massive improvement over the way it use to be. Have to figure out what to do about the 4th valve circuit, it was a plumbing nightmare on the old horn and I'd like to do something more elegant. Still have a lot of polishing to do, and I need to figure out what to do about a leadpipe

Nice

Tubajug wrote: ↑Mon Jul 17, 2023 6:28 pm

bisontuba wrote: ↑Mon Jul 17, 2023 6:05 pm

LeMark wrote: ↑Mon Jul 17, 2023 3:07 pm I have a big thumb! (also, years of playing cerveny has made me appreciate a big of chunky thumb ring)

All tubas should have the big fat thumb rings...worst invention of all time...adjustable thumb rings...

Where did you get said chunky ring, @LeMark?

Speaking of large thumb rings, where has @the elephant been for the last 3 weeks?! Hope all is well...

Cool horn, Mark!

I really need to meet Norm in person one of these days!

He's taking an extended break. Still posting some on FB, but not as active in the tuba areas

Out of curiosity, how long is the long straight tube on the bell side of your fifth valve tubing?

I’d interested to see if mine (a 15” bell York Eb, whose 5th is set up very similarly to yours) is about the same as yours. Mine looks a lot longer (too long perhaps but seems to play 5+4 Ab in tune)

The straight tuba is 25 cm. Total length for the circuit is 70cm

What kind of valve section is that?

LeMark wrote: ↑Tue Jul 18, 2023 7:32 pm The straight tuba is 25 cm. Total length for the circuit is 70cm

What kind of valve section is that?

Thank you.

That one is a King 1240 cluster with a 4th grafted on the back. I think I used an extra 3rd valve but turned it around backwards (ie the original “in” port is now the “out” port) which got the circuit ports out of the way of the current 3rd valve circuit ports (height wise).

Finished the 4th valve routing! I'm not in love with it, but it's all I could do with the parts I had on hand. It doesn't stick out beyond the branch, and that was my main concern. I still need a leadpipe, some parts are on order for the main tuning slide, a lot of polishing, and some bracing.

Lots of little improvements and progress in the last week

Found the perfect leadpipe... In my music room leaning up against the wall. I bought a miraphone pipe 10 years ago, assumed it was too large, but when I measured it, at 32cm it was exactly the size I needed. (.700 OD)

ONE problem with the leappipe was the mouthpiece end was too large for the receiver I had, and I spent a couple of day writing notes to people I knew to see what was available, and then I remembered that I had an old cerveny carcass in the attic, and sure enough the receiver was still on it, and it fit like a glove. Dodged a bullet there

Bent the leadpipe myself, and I have to say it turned out pretty good! The hardest part was getting the remains of the pitch out of it, but I finally got that done

Finished the 3rd and 4th valve circuits. The 3rd valve one drove me nuts, soldering the "barely there" overlaps on the tight turn crooks was difficult, I would solder the braces on and the parts I previously soldered would fall apart. I eventually got it.

5th valve linkage done! Slightly modified from the previous generation to make it longer and quieter

I found some brackets that I took off the cerveny that will help me make a main Tuning slide kicker... It is a York after all

Waiting on some tubing from Kevin Stiles to help me perfect the main tuning slide, and then I'll send some stuff off to Andersons. While it's gone, I'll take the whole horn to @UncleBeer and he's going to make the bell smoother. For 100 years old it is good, but it shows some signs that previous dent work was half assed



Probably won't have any more updates until I either get the parts back from silver plating or I get the horn back from Carl.